Duty and Doubt
by usemention
Summary: With responsibility comes the fear of failure. Naruto has to come to terms with his new role in a changing Konoha as Kakashi struggles to keep the village from destruction as Hokage. Madara's war may be more than the two can handle. Post 477, spoilers.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, or any of the characters. The following is a work of fiction that I do own on the other hand.

A/N: This stands as a kind of prologue to the rest of the story, wrapping up loose ends in the manga so I can do what I want with the story. Spoilers up to 477. Looking for a beta reader - if anyone is interested message me.

* * *

Sap. Smelled like pine sap. A sweet, earthy scent that reminded him of home. Konoha's forests, the smell of your hands after collecting kunai from target practice. The insufferable task of getting the stuff off the kunai and subsequently off of your hands.

Sasuke. He had been worrying about Sasuke. Sakura had come to talk to him, she had... confessed? Lied? Both. He opened his eyes slowly, to grasp his situation. Ero-sennin had always told him to fake sleep until he had a handle on his condition and placement. He had gotten pretty good at faking unconsciousness; it went along with the whole commonly passing out during training thing.

He was being carried. Yamato had him on his back as he leaped through the trees. Slowly it came back to him. He had hyperventilated, passed out. Pathetic. When a hard decision comes along, here comes Naruto to run away from making a decision by passing out. What kind of shinobi, or rather, what kind of friend passed out when he was needed most? He stirred and Yamato came to a stop along a larger branch.

"Yamato? I'm up. Thanks for the lift." He flashed a smile, a fake one, but one to disarm the worried face Yamato was making.

"I'm alright for now, don't worry." He shrugged his shoulders as he landed on his feet and tried to pop the stiffness out of his neck.

"You sure? If you're good we need to hurry back to Konoha. We've got to relay what Gaara told us and makes some plans" Right: Madara's plan, Danzo's power play, and Sasuke's idiotic head-on assault. Naruto gave a nod and followed in line behind Yamato, working out the details in his head as his feet mindlessly worked their way from branch to branch.

He still wasn't strong enough. Sasuke had thrown himself into the midst of five kages and walked out alive and he wasn't sure he could do the same. In fact, he was pretty sure he couldn't. That meant one of two things: Either he still hadn't caught up to Sasuke or Sasuke was just lucky as hell. He didn't want to bet on it being the latter.

Strength wasn't the issue here though. Madara had told him that Sasuke was a true avenger. He thrived on the darkness in his life, living in the depths of it only to blame the cause on his latest target. It gave him strength of will, strength to attack without regret, and a target to throw all of his hate onto. It didn't even matter who the target was anymore. As of now it was Danzo, the elders, but before long it would be Konoha, really anyone who had a life Sasuke could never have. By living happily they implicitly denied Sasuke what he so badly wanted and what he thought he could never have. A loop of self-destruction and hate.

Naruto had no idea what to do. How do you save someone from their own self-hatred and jealousy. If a man had no bonds because he hated them, then thinking he himself held any special place with that man because once upon a time he had seemed ridiculous. Sasuke was cut off from the world, cut off because he couldn't find happiness in those bonds anymore.

Sakura had made her decision. A mad dog had to be put down, no matter how much you loved it. It just seemed so... so wrong. To give up hope, to treat Sasuke just as a mess that had to be cleaned up because they thought they couldn't put him back together again. There had to be some way, some path to take to just bring him back, to just pull him out of that loop of hatred...

"Silence doesn't suit you, you know?" Naruto glanced up at Yamato, broken out of his thoughts. "You'll hurt yourself if you think too much. Just look what happened earlier." A joke. He was trying to cheer him up and so Naruto played along. A laugh. A smile.

"I know, I know. It's just so much to take in right now. You think Kakashi will find Sakura in time?" Deflection from the issue. Naruto was a master of redirecting conversation when he didn't want to talk. When you act as if you're brain changes topics a mile a minute then people are more apt to accept that the conversation will too. His shortcomings were tools too.

"He will. Besides, right now I don't think Sasuke would fight with her, or rather, I don't think Madara would let him. Gaara mentioned that he was pretty torn up after his little scuffle with the Kages." That made sense. Madara wanted Sasuke to fight him in the end anyway. Probably out of some self delusion that it would finally prove that the elder son of the Rikudou sage was the better. Who the hell knew what was going on in that swirly head. Maybe he just thought it would be interesting.

"I guess you're right. I'll have to deal with them when they come back. Not looking forward to that." That was the truth. Sakura felt justified in her decision to kill Sasuke, and it would be hard to convince her otherwise. He was finding it hard to convince himself otherwise.

"Don't worry about it, it'll work out in the end. Sakura just hasn't thought the issue through." Yamato was always concerned about how he felt. It was nice of him to try to lie to make him feel better.

"I'm sure you're right." Silence fell over the pair again as they hurried back to Konoha. The thud of sandals against wood was the only music Naruto had to narrate his thoughts to.

* * *

Shikamaru shivered as he lit a cigarette outside the command tent. Night had brought a cool breeze down from the north and he hadn't been home to pick up clothes since the reconstruction began. If his home was still there.

"Shit, can't enjoy a cigarette when you're shivering from the cold." Asuma would always say the same thing whenever they were around a fire while out on a mission. He always thought he was just complaining, making conversation. Now he knew it was really true.

Footsteps grabbed his attention as they came around the corner of the tent. Yamato and Naruto. No Kakashi. No Sakura. Interesting, but troublesome.

"Shikamaru, looking more and more like a delinquent every time I see you." Naruto flashed him a strained smile. Not a good sign.

"I'll meet you inside Yamato, then we can debrief. I need to talk to Shikamaru here for a minute." A serious face from Naruto. Things were just getting worse and worse. Yamato nodded approval and slipped past the entrance.

"That's new. What do you need to talk to me alone about?" Naruto walked over to him and shifted his hands behind his head, looking up at the moon. He scrambled a bit for words, starting slowly.

"You know, Sakura confessed to me." Surprising. "She was lying, but it feels good to get two confessions within such a short time." Two? A good guess was Hinata. "But now's not the time for these kinds of things you know. Not when we're deciding to hunt down one of our own." So he had heard. Shikamaru took a drag of his cigarette to give himself time to think.

"It's the right decision. We have to do something about Sasuke or risk a war because of his stupidity." Throw out a bit of reasoning for him, see how he responds. Conversations were never really conversations for Shikamaru anymore. They were just a bartering of information. Give some, take some, steal some from responses.

"I know. He royally fucked up this time. Attacked the five kages in the summit. Lived, but still, stupid." That was stupid. Stupid enough that it didn't sound like the Sasuke he knew. Unless there was revenge or power involved.

"That doesn't seem like him." Naruto sighed.

"He doesn't seem like him anymore. He just hates now and the Sasuke we knew might have been swallowed up by that hate." Interesting. Poetic language from Naruto. Or maybe that was just how he understood it.

"Uchiha Madara is behind it all you know. Pulled Sasuke out of there, told me it was fated that Sasuke and I would fight." Madara? The historical Madara? That didn't seem possible, but of course, most of Akatsuki didn't seem possible.

"If anyone could take him down now it would be you. The responsibility might very well fall on your shoulders in the end." Naruto's brow furrowed. Here was the issue.

"I know... but I just can't... I don't know if I can do it. I know things about him, about why he hates, about why he's doing what he's doing, and even though I can't see a way to save him I just can't push myself to kill him. I can't kill him just because I'm not good enough to save him." Naruto would find a way to blame himself for not being able to save a friend gone bad.

"If the time comes, you'll do it. You'll do it because you have to. You'll do it because you'll realize the future of Konoha is riding on your shoulders. You're killing one friend to save so many others, to save all the children of Konoha, to save a future we can't begin to fully imagine." Good, his shoulders dropped a bit. It meant that he was beginning to accept the decision and the stress on himself was letting up.

"Let's get you in to debrief. I need to know all the information so we can get to work on making a plan." Naruto gave him a nod and followed him into the tent.

* * *

"Pakkun?" The small dog shifted it's head back to Kakashi in acknowledgment.

"Close now. Sakura's right up here. I'm picking up Danzo and Sasuke too. Weak though." Danzo? Did that mean that Sasuke was after his vengeance, or that Danzo was after a sharingan? Maybe both. He couldn't let Sakura catch up to them. As much as he hated to admit it, if she got caught up in the middle of those two she wouldn't fair well at all.

"Let's speed it up to cut off Sakura. Hopefully Danzo and Sasuke are done by now, and hopefully Sasuke won. I would prefer not to deal with Danzo myself back in Konoha." Pakkun turned back to the path, nose to the ground and bound off as he picked up the scent.

The pair cut through the trees on the side of the path, quickly opening up into a clearing. Some sort of bridge came into sight, now missing chunks of stone. The air still held the smell of ozone, a clear sign of lightning jutsu. Sakura sat in the middle of the bridge with Kiba behind her, Sai on the edge with feet hanging off of the side, drawing, while Lee looking around the site for any remnants. He wouldn't find anything.

Good. It meant that they had lost Sasuke. That made his job easier at least. He came to a stop beside Sakura, laying a hand on her shoulder.

"Lost him, huh?" Sakura turned her head, eyes full of tears and guilt. She couldn't have been here long.

"So you knew? ...Of course you knew. That means Naruto knows too." Kakashi nodded as Sakura stood up and dusted herself off. Sai packed up his supplies and walked over to Kakashi.

"He was here." If Sai didn't say a name, that meant Danzo. If Sai meant Danzo, then he still couldn't say his name. That meant he was still alive. Fantastic.

"Well, you guys did what you could. Whether or not that was the right choice. If Danzo is still alive I imagine their battle didn't finish. Madara wouldn't let Sasuke die at this point." Sakura grimaced at the mention of Sasuke's death. Naruto was right. She still loved him and she hated herself for it.

"C'mon. Get your stuff together and we'll head back to Konoha. I guess I'm acting Hokage now so I need to be back to prepare for the war." Kami, another war. He was getting old, living into his second war. He didn't even want to imagine the decisions that lay ahead of him.

The makeshift team regrouped, seemingly dead. Sakura was emotionally drained from preparing herself to kill Sasuke and then failing to even find him. Kiba was annoyed at the whole mission but kept silent out of respect for Sakura, and Lee was still in his own world after Sakura's confession to Naruto. Sai was... well, Sai. At least the trip back would be quiet.

* * *

Naruto leaned back on the stone head of his father, taking in a deep breath as he stared up at the stars. He couldn't look down at Konoha. Every time he did he just saw the destruction, his failure. It hurt too much. Gamakichi gave him a worried look. Naruto hadn't said a word since he summoned him up here.

"You know, it's times like these that drinking was invented for." Naruto rolled onto his side to look at Gamakichi, one eyebrow raised. Gamakichi only smiled, as best a toad could.

"I'm just saying, I got some stuff from Myobokuzan and you never did complete the toad contract with a drink with dad. I can take his place you know, and it'll let some of that tension out. Moon-viewing and all. A toad tradition." Truth be told Gamakichi had just recently passed the legal age of drinking for toads. It was more of a rite of passage there, a sign of adulthood. Hell, if Naruto couldn't be seen as an adult now he didn't know who could.

"You know, some people might see this as corrupting the youth." Naruto sat up and smiled at Gamakichi. "But then again I hear it's pretty hard to convict toads under Konoha law, so I think you'll be safe." Gamakichi croaked out a laugh and unlatched the gourd from his belt. Good advice from dad to always carry a supply around. Naruto caught the gourd and pulled out the cork in the top, taking a whiff of the drink before tasting.

"Kami, what is this?" Special toad brew. Made from rice, flavored with grubs. Naruto didn't need to know the last part. Made to get Toads drunk, so it was a bit strong for humans. After all the average toad weighed a good three or four times as much as a person. And then those in Dad's class, he didn't even want to think about the stuff they drank.

"All you need to know is that it's good." Naruto scoffed and then took a long drink, almost coughing it up immediately afterwards.

"Burns." More coughing. "You could have given me a warning or something."

"Warnings aren't any good. It's something you have to try yourself. Besides, it's always funny to watch someone take their first drink." Now for the next part of the ritual. Get Naruto drunk enough so that he would be pushing it all back out later in the night. It was good for a first timer to learn their limits early on. Plus the hangover would distract him from his thoughts tomorrow. The joys of being a responsible adult.

* * *

Hinata always enjoyed moonlit nights. They helped her relax, distracted her from her worries. It probably had something to do with her mother. She could vaguely remember taking walks at night with her mother before Hanabi was born, with her mother singing to her as they walked through the Hyuuga gardens. She couldn't remember the song, or even the tune, but just the soothing feeling that would wash over her as she held her mother's hand and focused so hard on trying not to trip over rocks in the dark. This also meant that she was unnaturally aware of rocks during night walks but she guessed that wasn't such a bad thing.

Her chest still hurt a bit from the injury she had sustained from Pain. It had healed nicely leaving just a small round scar, but it would be a few days before she would be back up to speed. Physically anyway. Remembering what she had said to Naruto still brought a blush to her face, but in some ways it was a relief to have said it. No longer did she have to worry that it was her fault nothing was happening. She had made her move and could only wait now to see what he said in response. It was a liberating feeling in many ways.

It was also scary as hell. It had been a few days now and she hadn't caught a glimpse of Naruto, much less heard anything from him. That was to be expected though, after he had saved the village from Pain. More and more he was becoming what she knew he always would be and more and more that separated her from him, stole him out of her grasp. He was becoming a hero to the people and while he was always a hero to her, it meant her relationship to him was less special. Every time she pushed herself further, he would advance too. Achilles and the Tortoise, so to speak. It just seemed like he was so far out of reach now.

"Atta boy, get it all up now." A throaty voice and the distinct sound of vomiting dragged her attention away. Who would be drinking at this time of night, especially when things were in such shambles?

"Kami Gamakichi, I'm neeeveer eveeer letting you tricks me into drinking again." Naruto? He was the one? That just... well, it was surprising to say the least.

"Well it is made for Toads y'know and we are kind of a bit bigger than you. 'Sides, I didn't tell you to go downing such huge drinks." That sounded like Naruto. If he was going to do anything he was going to do it with fervor.

"Pfffft. Yeah, whatever. These are informations I should have been privy to beforehands." Hinata was beginning to be able to put the pieces together. She might as well make herself known to them. It was now or never.

"Naruto, is that you?" Hinata stepped around the corner and saw Naruto propping himself up against a wall and his summon walking beside him, just within arms reach. He had probably been acting as a crutch as they were walking.

"Hinata? Yeah I guess it's me. What are you doing out at this time of night?" His eyes showed concern underneath a haze of drunkenness.

"I, uh, was just out taking a walk." It almost seemed like she wasn't talking to Naruto while he was drunk. It toned down his personality a bit and made him a bit easier for her to handle without getting too nervous. Small miracles.

"Oh, really? That sounds nice." He stumbled a bit as he tried to right himself from the wall. "Sorry you had to see me like this and all." Beyond the initial shock, she didn't really mind. She knew he wasn't one to run away from responsibility and that he had a lot of stress on him. Anyone else she might have judged badly, but she knew Naruto wasn't doing this just to goof off.

"Don't worry about that, it's actually kind of nice. Humanizes you a bit." Naruto's brow furrowed, his emotions even more clearly showing on his face in his state. He was confused at her comment.

"What do you mean Hinata? I'm just as human as the rest o'ya." Oddly enough, he seemed somewhat perturbed now.

"Sorry, I didn't mean any harm. It's just you're almost a hero now. People idolize you for taking on Pain and it's just nice to see a side of you others don't." The anger disappeared only to be replaced by more confusion. Gamakichi caught him as he stumbled a bit, but quickly righted him and gave Hinata a wink.

"Well, I think he's alright for now. Would you mind taking him to a bed somewhere Hinata?" She blushed, catching what his wink meant now. She didn't know if she could handle a walk back with a drunken Naruto. She didn't get a choice though as Gamakichi unsummoned himself and left her alone with him.

"Hinata, I ain't no hero. That's for sure. I'm just a person who can't save his friend, who let down his sensei, who has impossible goals, and is a disappointment to his father. I'm just another guy who doesn't know what to do with his life." She caught his arm as he swayed, blushing a bit as she helped him walk now that Gamakichi was gone. Father?

"That doesn't sound like the Naruto I know at all. The Naruto I know wouldn't be giving up even if things looked dire. He also wouldn't giving up on his promises, now would he?" Naruto looked over at Hinata, giving a weak smile as he trudged along.

"I don't know if that Naruto is around anymore. Unfortunately, the world doesn't work out in the ways 12 year old boys think it will." He was right but that shouldn't stop him.

"Then you just have to make the world the way 12 year old boys see it, now won't you? If anyone can do it, you can Naruto-kun." He glanced away, thinking. Slowly, he began talking again.

"I... I guess so. It's something to think about. I just don't know how to save Sasuke anymore, save him from himself. Save people from hating each other. Ero-sennin thought it could be done, but he's gone now. Dad thought it could be done, but that just ended up getting him killed and unknowingly putting all of the hate on his kid. There's no easy answer here." More talk of his father. Who could that be, and what did Naruto mean when he said he got all of the hate?

"Give it time Naruto-kun, and you'll find an answer. You change people with the strength of your beliefs, without even knowing it. You changed Neji after the exam, and you changed... you changed me too. Just by being who you are you helped me become a better person." Confusion again, but some sort of acceptance too. That was good.

"Really?"

"Really Naruto-kun. Without you Neji would still hate our family and I would still be hiding behind my own insecurities." She wasn't quite sure where she found the courage to say these things. Maybe it was the pure need she saw in Naruto's eyes for support. She would give anything for him. They came to a stop in font of one of the make shift barracks. Naruto shifted himself, letting go of Hinata's arm as he prepared to go inside. Lifting the flap of the tent he turned around to face her.

"Thanks Hinata. You've always been there to help me when I need it and I can't thank you enough for that. You help everyone, and I really like that about you." He smiled at her as she blushed and slipped inside the tent. The heat from his hand on her arm slowly dissipated until she found herself again. A slow smile crept onto her face as she turned to walk back to the compound.

* * *

Kakashi made it back into the village, dead tired from the rushed journey back. He hadn't slept in something like 36 hours now, but he was finally back. And now he had to deal with the duties of an acting Hokage. Sleep would have to wait.

Sakura and the team filed in behind him, still silent, but now more from fatigue than emotional shock. At least _they_ could get some sleep now.

"Sakura, take everyone to get some sleep. Check back in with me in say, about 6 hours, and I'll get you up to speed." She nodded and walked off to the nearest sleeping quarters. That gave Kakashi some time to figure out what to do with her and some time to handle the situation with Naruto. Naruto wouldn't like what he had planned for him, but it had to be done and he was the only one who could do it at this point. Plus it would keep him safe.

Kakashi walked into the command tent, bustling with the morning shift change. That was good at least, meant that he would have some fresh minds to make up for his own fatigue. The joy's of leadership: you can take other people's ideas and claim them as your own because in the end the responsibility lies with you.

"Alright everyone, I am now acting Hokage." Best to be blunt. A few raised eyebrows. "Danzo made some bad decisions at the summit, namely attacking some of the other countries and unfairly coercing the neutral party that has led me to believe he is unfit for duty. Suna has made it clear that they will only acknowledge me as Hokage for now, and I have been led to understood that is the same for the other major villages." Shikaku smiled a bit. "I need to be brought all new information since I was last here and I'm sure Yamato has caught the rest of you up on the events at the summit. As of now we are part of an alliance with the four other major villages against Madara's and Akatsuki's forces, whatever those might be." The others in the room scrambled to assemble reports that had come in over the last few days. Kakashi signaled Yamato, who came over immediately.

"I need you to find Naruto and bring him here. I've got a mission for him." Yamato nodded and headed out of the tent. Shikaku came over to Kakashi, smirking a bit.

"I figured something like this would happen. Danzo was always out to pull something stupid." Kakashi sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"I just wish there were someone else to take over for now. I don't want to deal with this. I never was one for the whole responsibility deal." Shikaku laughed a bit.

"Well the best leaders were always the ones who didn't want the power given to them. It's good to have you in charge." A pat on the back. That was likely to be all the support he would get, but in the end he didn't really want more. He was doing this because he had to, not because he wanted approval.

* * *

"Naruto" Pain. Blaring Pain.

"Oh sweet Kami, what the hell is going on in my head." Naruto's mouth tasted like vomit and battery acid. Gamakichi was going to get it for this one.

"Get up. Kakashi has a mission for you." Greeeaaat. Just what he needed right now.

"I'm up, I'm up. Just give me a minute to not throw up all over the floor." Yamato seemed surprised, then his face softened into understanding.

"Alcohol probably wasn't the best choice to make, but it does help sometimes." He rummaged around in his pack. "Take a soldier pill. The nutrients will perk you up and the adrenaline will help get it out of your system faster." Naruto popped it into his mouth, letting the chalky taste overwhelm his taste buds. Anything was better than vomit. He pushed himself off of the cot, swaying a bit as he found his balance.

"Any idea what this is about?" A mission so soon seemed unusual, especially with Kakashi just coming into power. Maybe he wanted him to kill Danzo or secure Root or something ridiculous. He knew Kakashi wouldn't trust him with those types of missions though, not when he had ANBU he knew could handle assassinations and he trusted from his time as captain.

"Not sure. He just got back himself and asked for you immediately. He must have thought of something that had to be done on the way back." That didn't sound like much fun.

"Sakura?" A question he already knew the answer to. Kakashi wouldn't be back if she wasn't.

"Asleep by now probably. Kakashi sent her to get some rest after they made it back. He sent me off before he gave me any news but I saw Kiba on my way over here." That made sense. Kakashi must be pretty tired too. What did that mean about the Sasuke situation? No injuries, so that most likely meant no confrontation.

"Guess we'll see, won't we?" Yamato pushed his way into the command tent and Naruto followed him closely. Kakashi was propped up in the corner, half asleep in a chair surrounded by reports.

"Kakashi-sensei? Or should I say Hokage-sama now?" There was a joke in there somewhere, but Naruto's head hurt to much to think of one right now. Kakashi sat up straight in his chair, stirring himself awake.

"Kakashi-sensei's fine. I'm not Hokage yet and hopefully won't have to be. Tsunade may still wake up." That would be nice but dreams only got you so far. "Anyway, I've got a mission for you Naruto. An important one for Konoha." That sounded long.

"Did they find Sasuke?" Kakashi shook his head.

"No he was gone when they got there. Madara probably whisked him off like he did at the summit. Danzo's scent was gone too, but I don't know what that means for him. Sai tells me he's still alive." That was unfortunate. It would come back later to bite them, Naruto was sure of that.

"About this mission?" Neither of the two really seemed up for normal conversation right now. It was a talk between the dead.

"I've gathered all the information I could about Jiraiya's old information network. I'm sure you met some of the informants when you traveled with him?" Scratch that. It sounded very long.

"Yeah, I've met a few of them." Kakashi nodded, shifting over to grab a thickly bound file which he promptly threw over to Naruto.

"A rank mission then. I need you to reestablish the connections you can and keep me updated. With Tsunade down we have a complete shift over on any means of gathering information. Danzo may have been a bad person but he could get information. Now we have none." Rebuilding a spy network from the ground up. That was a definitely a mission.

"How long do I have?" It would take him at least 6 months to walk a circuit around the fringe of the network, more to try and find the informants along the way.

"As long as you need, sadly. I'd say take at least a year. We need to rebuild and this war won't start tomorrow. Madara has a much smaller force when compared to the five major villages. It means this is going to be a guerrilla war and there won't be any major moves for a long time." That made sense and sadly it meant a lot of deaths with little ground gained.

"He's going to hit patrols hard and fast and try to cause strife between the villages. The only chance he has of grabbing you and the eight tails is if the villages start to squabble. I imagine he has forces in Grass and Rain, and now that he has Sasuke he probably has access to some remnants of Sound as well. It won't be pretty." All three of those country's forces were spread out and hard to put a number on. They were fighting with an unknown force.

"I figure the best way to keep you safe then is to keep you moving. Konoha needs rebuilding and won't have stable defenses for months. If Madara is smart, which he is, he would come and try to grab you here soon." He was always out of the village. Always outside unable to do anything for the people he cared for. All because he was such a danger, because he wasn't strong enough.

"I want you to leave tonight and keep in contact through frogs. Keep low and train on the way. Keep in contact with Fukasaku. No one will know better how to train you then him. Ask him to get you up to date on seals and senjutsu, and work on extending your sage chakra. Keep the Kyuubi use down to a minimum as well, as it'll send out a flare to Madara whenever you use it." It wasn't like he planned to use the fur ball anyway, but it all made sense. Kakashi looked him in the eyes and he had never seen the man look more tired, not only physically but world weary.

"I'm sorry to do this to you, I really am. We need the information, we need you safe, and we need you stronger. Keep in mind the kage bunshin trick and keep moving. You'll be fine. I'll send information your way on Sasuke's movements, but I imagine he'll need some time to heal and regroup. He lost some of his group and he's realized that he couldn't beat Danzo. He'll take time to heal and train." And that gave Naruto time to think and figure out what he needed to do.

"I got it. I'll leave immediately and I'll make it quiet." He had to. He needed the time to get away from Konoha before Madara would make a move. "Tell Sakura not to worry and that I'll figure something out, and... tell Hinata thank you, and I'm sorry for leaving her without a response. That's something I'll have to figure out along the way." Kakashi just nodded, too tired now to worry about putting pieces together. "And thanks Kakashi-sensei. I'll do you and Ero-sennin proud. Don't get too comfortable with being Hokage, because I'll be back soon enough." Naruto flashed a brilliant smile and walked out of the tent.


	2. 1: Coping

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, or any of the characters. The following is a work of fiction that I do own on the other hand.

Thanks to spookymiss for beta reading this.

* * *

**Coping**

It seemed to Naruto that time passed more quickly as he got older, or maybe it just passed more quickly when he was caught up in worrying about his responsibilities. The soft orange and red shimmer of the leaves, nearly ready to fall from their branches, were a sight for sore eyes. He had been gone far too long from the forests of Konoha, from his home. He had only had a few months after his trip with Jiraiya before he was sent away again, but now he was back. Back for good, he hoped.

It had taken a little over a year to get everything up and running. Maybe running better than it had before, but he would never truly know. He had gotten as many of Jiraiya's contacts as he could, made a few new ones of his own, but he would never know if his network matched his dead mentor's; he had left too few notes on it, too little information. Contacts were lost, most likely never to see a ninja again in their lives. It was probably better for them that way.

What was done was done. He had set something up, had made something, and he just hoped it was good enough to keep Konoha alive until someone better in the next generation came around. It's not that he didn't have pride in his work; it was just that he hoped things would only improve from here.

He walked slowly along the path, reveling in the sights and sensations that he had missed so dearly. The soft breeze that carried the musty scent of fall, the rustling of squirrels carrying sticks up the trees for a winter nest, the crunch of the occasional leaf under his foot that had fallen to its resting place earlier than its peers. He felt at home. Being a sage meant that now he often found himself more comfortable with nature than with people, but here it was especially potent. So much life, so much nostalgia. It was no wonder Jiraiya had traveled so much; the return made you appreciate what you had so much more. Made you realize what you were fighting for in some sense.

Naruto let out a slow sigh as he shifted his belt, realigning the trio of gourds the fell along his hip. A necessary tool now, but he would have to pick up a new belt in Konoha. The constant traveling had worn the old one out and caused his body to lean up, making the fit a bit loose now. It was just one of the many chores awaiting him on his return.

As he climbed the last hill, the gates of Konoha came into view. They were larger than before, the wood still young, waiting to be aged by the test of time. Hopefully they would stand long enough to mature into old age, live long enough to one day need replacement from age and not destruction. The guards stood alert outside of the gates, now kept closed for security. Times of war called for such measures, he supposed. They were young, genin he guessed, which only made him feel older than he should. It was sad that responsibility had to fall on such small shoulders.

"Hold up. Name, purpose of visit?" The boy's voice hadn't even dropped yet. So serious when he should be out running D ranks, laughing with his team while catching cats. He was only seventeen and he felt like a nostalgic old man.

"Visit? I live here, but I suppose you two wouldn't recognize me. Well for that matter, not many would anymore. Naruto Uzumaki, at your service. Returning from a long term mission." Both their eyes went wide at the name, which surprised him a bit. Guess he was better known than he thought.

"Uzumaki-san? The sage? Umm... Right this way, sir. I'll take you straight to the Hokage. Standing orders to bring you straight to him whenever you showed up." That made sense. He hadn't contacted Kakashi for two months, telling him that he had a quick job and then he would be back. There were always surprises though, especially in creating a spy network.

"Sounds good. Lead the way." It felt good to walk through the gates, but the pure ecstasy he felt just a year ago on returning was gone. He was tired and no longer as carefree as he was once able to be. It sucked.

The young genin nervously lead him through streets he had never seen before but still strangely felt comfortable in. The village had been busy and it looked like the reconstruction had gone well in his absence. He was happy to see that, but frustrated at his inability to navigate through his own village anymore. That would come in time though.

Curious looks came from the villagers who were along the road. That meant Konoha didn't get many visitors anymore, but that too was to be expected in times of war. Or it could be that he just looked funny. He didn't want to rule that option out, as he hadn't really had an opportunity to change out of his worn travelling clothes. Not that he had any others to change into right now.

The Hokage tower stood in what Naruto guessed was the same place it had before. It had been rebuilt to look the same, to suggest a strong tradition of leadership. Kakashi had made the right decision there.

"Here we are then. I'll let you go now." The genin was scrambling to get away. Was he really so intimidating? Or did he smell, maybe? Naruto nodded approval to the genin who hurriedly walked off back to the gate. Now to be the bearer of bad news.

* * *

Kakashi sat in his office, bored out of his mind. He didn't know how the other Hokages had done it. Sure, they had paperwork occasionally, but he had just split it up between his assistants; it certainly kept Sakura busy and her hands out of matters where they didn't belong. Like patrol death reports with lightning jutsu use.

He had discovered a passion for desk construction. He had plenty of materials and with a little static build up from a carefully used raiton, you could make anything stick to anything else. It was soothing in some ways to build towers of pencils, animals out of paper clips, really whatever he could think of to give him something to do. This was a war of patience and Kakashi was never good at waiting. It was why he always showed up late; when you're the last one present you're never waiting.

His attention was drawn away from his latest project as his secretary came in. Nice girl, if a bit crabby sometimes. She had never made it past genin, but her lack of battle skills did not mean a lack of organizational abilities.

"There's an Uzumaki Naruto here to see you, sir." She shifted uncomfortably, her eyes glancing away quickly after making eye contact. Good. His hero propaganda about Naruto seemed to have worked then, if she was nervous around him. She could keep her cool around the most ridiculous of ninja, Gai being one, and if Naruto threw her game off then that meant something. He just wasn't sure exactly what it meant.

"Send him in then. I'm sure he's got something important to say. I hope." She nodded and shuffled out of the doorway. Naruto was a bit late, but such things happen. He knew better than anyone.

The man who stepped into his office was not at all what he expected. He seemed calm and held together, if a bit ragged from his travels. That was not typical Naruto behavior, but it was what he would expect from the man who built an information network. He guessed the necessity of the mission had changed him a bit into what it required.

He wore a dark brown traveling cloak over a deep maroon shirt, long sleeved. Black pants ending at the calf, taped at the right thigh for his kunai. Typical ninja sandals that looked like they were almost worn through. Standard issue on at least those points. He had forgone the Konoha headband for one in the style of his dead sensei, with the kanji for blood rather than oil written across the front. It held back his now long hair, which needed to be tied back, but apparently Naruto hadn't noticed. A thick belt, loosened with age, hung on his hips supporting three gourds that held who knows what. Kakashi hoped they weren't all alcohol.

"Blood, huh? That's a bit morbid." Naruto smirked as he walked into the room, closing the door behind him.

"Well I couldn't exactly sneak around making a spy network with a Konoha leaf on my forehead, could I? Fukasaku had it made for me. You ever try to intimidate someone with oil written on your head? Doesn't work so well." That was evasive, but Naruto was allowed to keep some secrets.

"You're a bit late, you know. Told me you would be here two months ago." Naruto sat down, molding himself into the chair. He was tired.

"Yeah, ran into some trouble on my way out of Sand. Gaara needed some help quelling a small resistance group. Some people aren't happy with the progress of the war and his gracious relationship with Konoha." The alliance was starting to crack. Just like Madara needed it to.

"I know. I still hear some news that isn't from you, mind you." Naruto smiled and nodded.

"Then you know about the forces in River? I cut through there on my way back and scouted out some bases. Looked like Sound forces were setting up training camps for them." That wasn't good. If he set up camp in River, then Madara's force would surround the country of Fire in a small strip. He would have a mobility advantage over the alliance.

"I didn't know that, but it's good to know. Bad to hear." With his bases in waterfall Madara's forces were approaching a dangerous size. The alliance still had numerical superiority, if they stuck together, but they were slow to move and currently split up between the five villages. Madara could move all of his forces together; after all, he didn't have inter-village politics to work out. Kakashi sighed as he thought through the consequences.

"Yeah, it's bad. If we don't get our shit together things are going to go downhill fast. Most likely for Konoha first." Naruto was right, but Kakashi would need some time to figure out something to do. Or rather, he would need some time to tell Shikamaru and his father to figure out something to do.

"Well, we'll figure something out. Not now though." Naruto nodded, looking Kakashi in the eye as he shifted in his chair. "I've got a belated birthday present for you." Kakashi stood and walked over to the closet in the corner to rummage around.

"Exciting. I hate to tell you though that Ero-sennin already left me a full collection of his novels, collector's editions and all." Kakashi laughed a bit at the comment.

"Those are keepers you know. Better not let those go to waste. Never mind that though, here's what I got for you." He threw a green vest Naruto's way. "That one's a bit worn, from my early days as a jounin, but it did me well. Hope it'll do the same for you. Congratulations, I've promoted you." Naruto's eyes widened in shock.

"Jounin?"

"Yeah, kind of anticlimactic I know. Sorry about that. I know how you love a good show and all." Kakashi sat back down, the gears in his chair squeaking as he leaned back in it.

"No exam or anything?" Naruto slipped off his cloak to put the vest on and Kakashi caught sight of the bandages that covered his left arm, down to the ends of his fingers. Interesting, but he would leave the questioning on that for another time.

"Nope. Don't think I don't know about the little side missions you pulled on your trip." Naruto had taken out quite a few patrols of Madara's that he had run into while traveling. He had to do it, Kakashi knew that, but he had been surprised Naruto never told him about it. One of them had to have been his first kill, and that couldn't have been easy for him out on the road alone. It had been fairly easy to pick up signs of Naruto at the scenes; Early on his scent, then lingering wisps of his chakra, or the unique spirals left in some of the bodies from a well-placed rasengan.

"Well, that had to be done." Naruto stared him in the eyes and Kakashi caught a glimpse of the war scarred man behind them. It made him a bit sad to see that in his own student.

"Yes it did. It also got you a promotion. A promotion also gets you assigned lodgings in the jounin district if you so desire. I imagine you do, so I had what possessions you had left moved there. I'll show you there now if you want, grab some ramen on the way?" Naruto smiled and nodded. It was good to be home.

* * *

War was troublesome. Shikamaru had known that beforehand, but only experience had beaten the lesson deep into his body. Muscles tired from constant running about, eyelids drooping from a lack of sleep, heart racing when you tried to fix that, the memories of death and fighting the only partner to keep you awake at night.

And the sweet taste of nicotine to keep you running. Stimulants on demand. It also got you away from it all for five minutes. Five minutes to shut out the horror of the world, and sit back and watch the clouds. One of the few respites he had left and he enjoyed every minute of it.

Shikamaru was doing his best to keep everyone alive, but each failure weighed heavily on his conscious. Studying under his father had gotten him to the level of assistant tactician; a fancy title that meant nothing more than he was the go to guy when his father was gone or the job was too small to worry him. That meant Shikamaru made a lot of small patrol decisions: which village to stop at for supplies, what paths to run back-up patrols through, how to get aid to suffering towns, etc. He dealt with faces, with people. He knew the men and women he sent on patrol, saw their faces when they came back shell shocked or dead. He felt the guilt. His father only ever saw them as patrols, not faces. He envied that.

A bark broke him out of his thoughts. Kiba and Akamaru were running up to him, which meant news, good or bad.

"Did you hear?" No, of course he hadn't. That's why Kiba was here to tell him.

"Hear what, Kiba?" Kiba was excited. Very excited. Most likely good news then.

"Naruto's back, or at least I think he is. Apparently one of the genin at the gate has been spreading a rumor that he led him in today. I don't think he would lie." Rumors, great. But in this case probably true. A genin wouldn't have any motivation to falsely report that Naruto had come into the gate.

"That's good news then. Should raise moral now that Kakashi's hero is back." Shikamaru laughed as Kiba scowled a bit. Sure, Kakashi's plan to raise the villager's confidence in his authority through Naruto propaganda had given a face to the war, but it did rub some people the wrong way. Kiba had never forgiven Naruto for his victory in the chuunin exams and always complained about wanting a rematch.

"Yeah, yeah. Still need a rematch with 'the hero.'" Predictable. He had called that one.

"I'm sure Naruto will be happy to give you one. After all, Naruto is Naruto." He hoped. Things did change.

"I've been trying to smell him out. Harder than I thought, so his scent must have changed. Which is weird, but nothing is unexpected when it comes to Naruto. Happens sometimes when people get older." A tidbit to put away for now. "If you see him, tell him I'm lookin' for him. Actually just tell him we should all meet up. You're the strategist, figure something out." Titles always got you duties. He should have had Kakashi name him official cloud watcher.

"Alright, I'll get Ino or Sakura or someone on that. They're better at the whole get together thing." Plus they would actually be motivated to do it. Not that he wasn't, it was just a lot of work. Work he could make someone else do.

Kiba nodded and ran off to wherever he was going. To each his own. If he could keep himself distracted by focusing on old rivalries, all the better for him. Kiba could have his matches and Shikamaru would take his smokes. Life would go on.

* * *

It was a small apartment, but it had a nice porch out front. The doors to each apartment opened out directly to an outdoor hallway, which Naruto had decided to claim as his own. His was on the third floor, top of the building, with one other apartment beside his. An ash tray out front, one that needed to be emptied. They would get along.

He sat on the floor for now, legs hanging off the edge in between the rungs of the railing. A chair was a requirement that would come in time. He sat staring up at the moon, third bottle of sake half-full by his side. It felt good to be able to drink and not worry about who was watching you in the bar, potential informant or enemy. It felt good to just relax, to be home. Tomorrow might bring missions, reunions at the least. He could only hide so long.

Kakashi had brought him to the new Ichiraku stand, delicious as always. The old man was still there, but Ayame was married now and off with her husband. She was still in Konoha but he would probably never see her again. It was always surprising when you realized other people had lives too. Lives that changed.

Kakashi had told him what he could. He had known most of the information about Madara's movements, but it was good to have an idea of Konoha's political relations with the other villages and the internal struggles for power that were still going on.

Kakashi had been officially recognized as the sixth Hokage. Recommended by the jounin council, approved by the civilian and clan councils, the Daimyo had no choice but to accept the change. He didn't mind Kakashi as a choice, rather the opposite, but he didn't like his decisions being questioned. Danzo had been his decision, as ill-informed as it was.

The old bastard was still alive too. Somewhere. A lot of Root had disappeared days after Danzo had, cutting the village's ANBU numbers down by a third and undermining Kakashi's authority. He had done his best to associate his Hokage-ship with the good, moral choice. Associating himself with a self-constructed hero being one of the steps to forming such an image. Naruto would have preferred to not be seen as a hero, but a part of him, what was left of the younger him, bristled with excitement at the news.

Kakashi had a majority of the villagers support and the jounin council, which dwindled in numbers by the day due to the war. The clan council was on the edge, always on the edge, trying to get their claws into any power they could. Kakashi didn't have the patience to play power games with them so it often went badly, and so he could never count on them for support.

The most dangerous was the rumors of an underground resistance which Kakashi had been unable to confirm. The existence of the rumors showed someone was unhappy, but not the size or existence of an actual force that could vie for power. Kakashi knew some people were unhappy with his choice of war, and unhappy with his choice to ally with Iwa after the last war. People had lost loved ones and Kakashi could make little of the knowledge on Madara public. The people were fighting and living through a war that they didn't really know the motivation behind. They were dying only knowing that a few small villages were unhappy enough to fight them. Motivation was not on Kakashi's side.

Naruto was supposed to fix that by being a figure the people could trust in. The man who defeated Pain would make the right decision and he was fighting the war. Blind trust could only get you so far though, especially with a hero that was never around. But now he was back and Kakashi planned to make good use of that fact.

That was why Naruto found himself drinking on the porch. He didn't see himself as a hero and he certainly didn't know how to act like one. He was just who he was and he hoped that would be enough. It had to be enough.

"My, my, look who's a delinquent now." Naruto looked down from the sky, finishing off the dish in his hand. Shikamaru stood on the stairs, his face framed in mock surprise. "I might have to report my new neighbor to the neighborhood watch. This just won't do." Naruto laughed at the joke. Shikamaru looked the same as ever. The ash tray made sense now.

"It's good to see you Shikamaru. I think we'll make good neighbors: the alcoholic and the chain smoker." Shikamaru grinned at that, sitting on the top step and pulling out his pack of cigarettes.

"We each cope in our own ways." He was right. Both of them took after their dead mentors, it just happened that one of them was an alcoholic and the other a smokestack. Bad habits had a funny way of being passed down.

"I might say that you looked like you've changed, but I guess that would be an obvious observation." Naruto looked down at himself in mock shock.

"No, no. I'm the same as ever." Shikamaru laughed. A silence followed as the two men sat, one finishing off his bottle of sake while the other leaned back on his hands, cigarette dangling between his lips.

"War changes people. Necessity changes people. Apparently it makes unwitting heroes too." Shikamaru nodded and Naruto could see his mind turning behind his eyes. Not all changes were on the outside.

"It's good that you're back you know. You'll have to deal with a reunion party tomorrow, had Ino set that one up. Now that I found you it's my moral responsibility to turn you into them." So much for his relaxing time alone.

"Yeah, I suppose so. Can't hide forever."

"If only we could." An ally. Naruto was glad to find one. He drained the bottle, standing up shortly after.

"I'm glad you're my neighbour, Shikamaru. I'll see you tomorrow; leave me a note or something about this party. Or you could always use the ANBU to find me. Those guys never have enough to do anyway." Shikamaru smirked and finished his cigarette as he watched Naruto walk down the stairs. Things had changed, but it seemed to him that it might be for the best.

* * *

"Madara. I've waited long enough, gone on your little training escapades. The camps in River are self-sustaining now. I've done everything that you asked. When do I get what I want." Sasuke, boiling under his seemingly calm exterior, stared down the elder Uchiha, his sharingan spinning to show his seriousness.

"Now, now, Sasuke-kun, there are still things to be done, people to kill, alliances to break and all. You know that." To be honest, Madara himself was a bit frustrated with the creeping progress. One could live forever and still never be happy waiting on an army to build itself.

"That's not good enough anymore. Your excuses don't mean a thing to me. I can attack Konoha myself, no need for an army to do so." He was confident, Madara would give him that. Stupid though. Vengeance seemed to breed brashness in the boy.

"Well, you could certainly try. I won't be there to pull you out though when that Uzumaki boy beats your ass." There was always a trick to dealing with Sasuke. Get him angry at something else, something he could deal with, that distracted him long enough so that he left Madara alone. It was like leading a puppy along with promises of dog treats.

"Naruto is back in Konoha?" Simple as that. No more screaming about Konoha and instead, more training to deal with Naruto. The boy had some self-esteem issues when it came to that Senju-spirited jinchuriki.

"That's what they tell me. Message came in earlier today. Special delivery from our good friends there." Honestly he was surprised they took the risk to get him an urgent message. It was just the Uzumaki kid, and he certainly didn't deserve any fanfare on entrance. Konoha must have a different image of the boy, but at least it payed out in the end. Easy bait for Sasuke.

"They say he's real strong now. Muscles of steel and chakra so thick you can spread it like butter. All that jazz, you know?" Now he was just making stuff up, but it was fun to toy with Sasuke. Even if the boy knew he was messing with him.

"I'm sure. You just get me what I want Madara, soon." He stormed out of the room in typical fashion after any conversation that didn't play second fiddle to his wishes. Madara actually found some of the experiences quite funny. He knew where Sasuke would go now, to train, and he would be out of his hair for a week or two. That gave him time to set up a new mission for him and get rid of him for even longer.

It was all a game for him, but one did have to keep oneself occupied while building an army. Madara wasn't sure when manipulating people had become a past-time for him, but it was one he certainly enjoyed. Now to find that Karin girl and tell her Sasuke would be training and needed some company to wipe the sweat off of his forehead. She was only fun because she was predictable, and predictable meant a stable tool to use to mess with Sasuke. He enjoyed his job.

* * *

"Hey there Baa-chan. Long time no see, eh?" Naruto sat reverently by the hospital bed Tsunade still occupied, more than a year after releasing her seal. A chakra exhaustion induced coma, made far worse by the fact that the emptying of her seal had put her body further into shock than should be possible. It had fried her chakra coils, leaving them in a neutral state unable to generate or hold chakra and so she remained comatose, trapped in a body Naruto barely recognized as her own, withered from age and thin from her condition.

"Sorry I couldn't come and see you earlier. I imagine you've been wondering why I never visited you. Work and all. I hope you would be proud." He knew she would be, would have been the first one to see him when he got back. She would have been there to congratulate him on rebuilding one part of his sensei's legacy, so that one part of the man she loved in her own way would live on a bit longer.

"It's been hard you know. I've been alone for a year, not trusting anyone. I killed people, killed them with my own hands. Lots of people." Naruto somehow found it comforting to get the words out, even if she couldn't respond to him.

"The first time was just a single Oto nin, out in the village to pick up supplies I imagine. He saw me, recognized me. I could see the fear in his eyes as they met mine. He knew that he would die and there was nothing he could do otherwise. It was his job to report me if he saw me and it was my job to make sure he didn't see me. I failed at my job and so someone had to die for it." His voice began to crack a bit as he went on.

"I remember... I remember him running. He just, just turned around and started running. Dropped his bag. This man was scared of me. I mean, really scared. And the sad part is that he had every right to be scared of me. After all, I was the man who was going to kill him." He paused a bit, composing himself.

"I cornered him in an alleyway with kage bunshins. It was so easy. He wasn't thinking straight, scared out of his mind. He turned to me in that alleyway, his brown eyes pleading with me as he fell back into the corner, trying his best to get as far away from me as he could." A tear rolled down Naruto's face.

"He... He asked me to let him live. Begged. Said he wouldn't say a word, would go home to his mother and never play at being a ninja again. I don't know why I stood there listening. It only made things worse in the end because I knew I had to kill him. I knew no matter what he said that I would have to kill him, and I listened anyway, made it harder for myself." Naruto was bent over the bed now, grasping Tsunade's hand in both of his, holding on as if his life depended on it.

"I grabbed him by the hair. Slit his throat. It was quiet as the blood flowed down the front of his shirt. I won't ever forget the gurgling noises his throat made as the blood ran, the thud his body made as I dropped it in horror at my own actions. His blood covered my hands. I didn't wash it off for hours. I walked around in a daze as I packed up and left the town. I only realized that I ended up covering my pack in blood when I arrived at my next stop." Tears fell onto Tsunade's still hand.

"I told myself that I had to do it. I told myself that every time I killed someone. It never helped. I suppose every ninja goes through that at some point. It's our job to. That doesn't make it easy, never makes it easy. You either find some way to deal with it or fall into insanity. Helps to explain the crazies, people like Akatsuki. How right Pain was. How ignorant I was." Naruto shifted in his chair, righting himself once again.

"I'm still trying. Still looking for peace, ways to stop hate in the world. This war isn't helping anyone, but if we give up then things will only get worse. Madara will only fool everyone, use everyone. So I choose the lesser of two evils, knowing it to be an evil the whole time and that weighs heavily on me. I wish you could tell me how you handled it Baa-chan. You lived through wars, through death." Naruto reached down to grab a gourd from his side.

"I need you now, more than ever. Konoha needs you. I'm going to try something, Baa-chan. Something that will probably end up killing you and I apologize for that. I learned a lot about seals while I was travelling, Fukasaku taught me. I know about your seal. The damage it caused you. I think I can restart your chakra system by jump starting your old seal, reinforcing it so to speak, but I'm going to pump a lot of chakra into you. It's a blood seal, so if our chakras don't mix well, it'll kill you. Again, I'm sorry about that, but it's the only thing I can think of." He dipped a brush he had into the gourd, the tip coming out red with blood. His own blood.

Carefully he drew the intricacies of the seal across her forehead, leaving a diamond in the middle for her old seal to reactivate. Slowly, he continued down her neck, tracing out the chakra lines that he knew lay under her skin.

"I didn't tell Kakashi I was going to do this. I didn't tell anyone. Sakura will be probably be pissed at me, especially if it doesn't work. Well, you never gain anything without a gamble, right Baa-chan? And we both know how lucky I am." The lines extended down her chest to her stomach, where the majority of the chakra coils were present. That was where he would pump chakra in, where Tsunade had the best chance of integrating his own chakra into her system and jump starting her own seal through his.

He took off his cloak and pulled his long sleeves back, his eyes roaming over the bandages that covered his left arm. He flexed the fingers there, making sure they responded quickly before continuing. Slowly he placed his hand on the upper sides of Tsunade's stomach, ready to pump his chakra out slowly but surely.

"This might sting a little. There might be some demonic chakra in there too. Don't worry about that, I accounted for it in the seal." It was now or nothing. The nurse would be back for rounds soon and his good graces would only keep the ANBU from checking for a bit longer. He just hoped this didn't make too much noise. And so he let go, let the chakra flow.

Tsunade's body convulsed immediately, her back arching as if electrocuted. Her body wasn't used to containing chakra anymore and so it responded the only way it knew how. Muscle convulsions. Naruto kept going though, letting more and more chakra flow. He hoped he had enough to make up for the lifetime of chakra Tsunade had stored in that seal. At least enough to get it running again.

Sweat dripped from his forehead as Tsunade's chakra coils began acting on their own. No longer was he pushing chakra, he was holding it back from being sucked in too quickly. The coils had been started but couldn't sustain themselves, and so they were sucking the chakra straight from Naruto through the connection he made. His job was to make sure it all didn't happen too fast and kill her.

Dizziness washed over him. Not a good sign as it meant he was running dangerously low on chakra, and he couldn't tap into the Kyuubi here. That was as good as a death sentence. A little trace of demonic chakra his seal could deal with, a mass of demonic chakra it could not. He forcefully slowed down the rate of transfer, weaning off Tsunade's coils from their new found meal. He would have to put a stop to the transfer and cross his fingers. Hope that it was enough to start her up again.

The wave of nausea that ran over him as he forcefully stopped the connection was overwhelming. He had to quickly turn and vomit into the bedpan that the nurses had left in the room. That was an unexpected side effect. He looked back to Tsunade, trying to find any sign that the procedure had worked. Nothing. Worriedly he put his hand under her chin, checking for a pulse. Again, nothing.

"Damn it Baa-chan, don't go out on me like this." Panicked, he began chest compressions to try to get her heart to beat again, but he knew it wasn't likely to work. He needed to shock her, shock her heart back into beating. The idea struck him quickly. He may not be able to use demonic chakra in the transfer, but he could use it to fuel a small raiton jutsu.

He hurriedly ran through the hand seals of one of the only raiton jutsu he had learned while traveling. He had never been good with lightning, so he had only been able to learn the smallest of them, which he now saw as a blessing rather than a curse. Hands alight with arcs of electricity, he placed his hands over Tsunade's heart, her body convulsing like before.

A gasp for air, eyes long closed opening again. Naruto smiled brightly as Tsunade awoke for the first time in over a year.

"Hey there Baa-chan. Long time no see, eh?" She coughed, her throat rough from inactivity.

"Long time no see, gaki."


	3. 2: Hiding

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, or any of the characters. The following is a work of fiction that I do own on the other hand.

* * *

**Hiding**

Sakura was out for blood. Not literally, but it had been over a day now and she still hadn't seen Naruto. Kakashi had. Shikamaru had. Naruto had even somehow found the time to bring Tsunade-sensei out of her coma, but no, no time for his old teammate. She huffed in irritation. If she waited until the get-together tonight she would be admitting defeat, admitting that her relationship with Naruto was no different than the rest of their class who would see him tonight for the first time. And being normal was unacceptable.

So she found herself stalking around Konoha, trying to catch any glimpse of the man. It shouldn't have been so hard, right? Naruto wasn't exactly known for his subtlety as a child, and she couldn't imagine that changing. A Naruto who wasn't outspoken wasn't a Naruto at all - at least that's how she thought of the matter.

If that was the case though, why was he so hard to find? He had to be avoiding her and that was unforgivable. Simply unthinkable. She hadn't seen him since she had confessed to him at the summit, and he had to have gotten past that by now. She was the one who should be mad, after being refused and called a liar, but she wasn't. If she had moved on, Naruto must have.

Tsunade-sensei had been no help. She had visited her early this morning, rushing over after being called to the hospital early in the morning. She had cried as she saw Tsunade sitting up in her bed, peeling an apple for herself. Sakura had never been able to figure out what to do to heal Tsunade, never even had a glimpse into her condition beyond the fact that her chakra coils had stopped functioning. Well, maybe she had thought of possible treatments, but they were all far too risky. With so little chance for success, she wouldn't have been able to live with herself if she failed. Either Naruto was one to throw away chances of failure (which seemed likely to her), or he had come up with some amazing method. Yet another reason she had to find him: either to yell at him for his recklessness or to examine whatever it was that he had come up with.

Shizune had been with Tsunade when she came in, as happy to have her mentor back as Sakura was. Shizune had mentioned that Naruto had used some sort of seal in the procedure, but the specifics eluded her. He had apparently caught Tsunade up on recent events while he was there, and Sakura couldn't help but feel that the woman who had been in a coma for more than a year knew more about the current war than she did. Her information on Naruto had been vague though, as she had told Sakura that she would just have to see him for herself. That knowing smile on her face, it never meant anything good.

She peered into the window of the small restaurant on the corner as she passed. In her desperation she had fallen to the point of checking random shops and stands. A wave from the inside and she found herself prompted with a smiling Ino. That meant the search would have to go on hold for a bit. Seeing Ino meant that you had to talk to Ino, else face the consequences later. She walked into the restaurant, taking in the scents of the freshly prepared food. Perhaps a meal wouldn't be a bad idea at this point.

"Forehead. I see you're busy manhunting this morning." Sakura raised her eyebrow at the comment.

"Manhunting? Naruto-hunting is more like it. You haven't run into him have you?" She took a seat across from Ino, flagging down the waitress as she sat.

"Nothing. I sent messages to everyone about tonight and Shikamaru promised me blondy would show. Just relax forehead, you'll see him tonight." That was the problem. The waitress made it to the table, pen in hand.

"I'll just take whatever Ino here ordered." She nodded and went off to the back, leaving the two alone again.

"I can see that this bothering you Sakura, more than it should." Damn Ino and her face reading. Ever since she began studying under her father and Ibiki, having a conversation with her was a scramble to hide whatever secrets one could.

"I'm just his teammate. You would think that would mean he would come to see me." Ino sighed as she ran her fingers through her now short, cropped hair. Even after seeing it for months Sakura still had some difficulty adjusting to that hairstyle. Gone was the long silky hair Ino had cared so much about, replaced by a messy mop of short blond. It always threw her off, but she guessed that was the intention. It made Ino look more intimidating, more serious. Less like a girl her age, less the like the girl she might have been if she wasn't interrogating patrols on a regular basis.

"He's just busy and you know he was never one to follow any social norms. I mean he healed Tsunade didn't he? Dad told me that Kakashi didn't even know about that one until this morning." Ino giggled a bit at that. "Same old Naruto, just maybe not quite as loud and obvious. Still rushing into situations without really thinking through the consequences." Sakura knew she was right.

"Just like with you. He hasn't thought through the consequences of not seeing you, and that's why you're here to remind him, right?" Sakura cracked a smile at that. That did seem to be her job far too often.

"You're right, I'm just overreacting." She pulled her elbows up onto the table, resting her chin on her hands. "What did you order anyway?" Ino raised an eyebrow.

"Onion soup with a steak and onion sandwich, extra onions." She should really be more careful about making quick decisions.

"Why would you ever order that Ino?" The girl smirked a bit at Sakura's response.

"Giving another go at prisoner 27 again after lunch. Found out last time that the man hates the smell of onions. Rambled it out once I got him past the pain threshold." Of course. Sometimes Sakura worried that Ino fell into her work too much, but she herself couldn't judge on that matter. They both worked to keep their hands busy, their minds busy, clear. Ino tortured, Sakura tried to heal people. An interesting pair.

"Yeah, well good luck with that then. I'm sure you'll have a blast of an afternoon." The gleam in Ino's eyes was intimidating too sometimes. Same as her father, Ibiki, Anko; a cost of the job she guessed. At least they could convince themselves that they enjoyed it, even at the cost of some humanity.

* * *

Naruto awoke to the afternoon sun peering through his window. While frustrating at the time, he was glad that the bedroom in the apartment was situated so that the morning sun wouldn't bother him. He needed sleep after all, and he wasn't one to wake up early.

He had gotten back late after bringing Tsunade up to date last night. It had felt good to talk to her, to have her back. She had been a little disoriented at the loss of a year and the changes in him, but at least she had recognized him and had treated him just the same as she did when he was younger. It was a refreshing feeling.

Although there was a lot of news, she had taken it surprisingly well. Him defeating Pain, Danzo's short claim to the Hokage title, Kakashi's current rule. Those she took easily, as if they were expected. His rebuilding of Jiraiya's network was what shocked her and he caught the change in her eyes after he had told her. She was judging him, trying to readjust her beliefs about him. It had been a bit unsettling at the time, but it had changed little in the way she talked to him afterwards.

He didn't mention his kill again, or the seal he had used to wake her. She had grilled him on that one, but he had swiftly changed the topic each time. He didn't want her to know the risk he had taken, how desperate he was to have her back. It would be better if she didn't know, and so he made sure that Shizune would wash off the remnants of the seal before she left, winking at her on his way out. Most of it was gone anyway, but he had no doubt Tsunade could piece it together if she really wanted to.

He had come home late, or rather very early, and passed out. He had been exhausted from the traveling beforehand, but he owed Tsunade the quickness of treatment. He was glad to have done it.

The blood rushed from his head as he stood up, disorienting him as it always did. A sensation that he would never get used to. He stretched as he made his way to the bathroom, unwinding the bandages that covered his left arm as he moved.

The shower felt amazing. Kakashi had managed to stock the room up with basic supplies, and for that he was thankful. He absentmindedly scrubbed the dried blood off of his left arm, the procedure having become habit months ago. His arm had been surprisingly quiet since he had come back. He wasn't sure if that was a good or a bad thing.

Toweling off, he stared at his face in the mirror. Little signs of the old Naruto had appeared unexpectedly, a little more life in his tired eyes. He was almost scared to know what that meant, but he assumed it had to be a good thing. A life alone had been hard, but he wasn't alone anymore. He just had to come to terms with that fact again.

He slipped on some pants as he walked back into his bedroom, grabbing his belt and gourds on the way to the couch in the front. He leaned back into the seat, taking his left arm into his hand, running his eyes across the ink that was so carefully covering it. He still remembered sitting in that hotel room, biting down on a hand towel in the room as he painstakingly tattooed the whole design, his arm tied down to the table with a belt. One of his best seals to date, despite the situation.

He popped open the gourd he had used last night, dipping a clean brush into it. While one of his best works, it was also one of his most annoying. Double layered, and so that meant that he had to redraw the second layer every time it got washed off. Carefully he retraced the lines encompassing his arm, hiding every inch of the ink with scarlet, waiting at each junction for the blood to dry before he moved on. A long process, but now a necessary one. Grunting a bit as he got up, holding the brush in his teeth as he used his right hand to push himself up, he moved over to the kitchen to make some food and wash the brush out. He had a long day ahead of him, and Ero-sennin had always told him the first meal of the day was the most important. Even if that meal was lunch.

* * *

Kakashi had picked up some flowers on his way to the hospital. He himself didn't know anything about flowers or what they meant, but he had just grabbed some from a street vendor as he left his office. It was the thought that counted right? Even if Kakashi didn't know what the thought intended by these specific flowers were. He was never one for details when it came to social rules. After he gotten over his whole rule fetish thing as a kid anyway.

He had been meaning all day to go see Tsunade after hearing that Naruto had managed to wake her up from the coma, but he also a reputation to uphold. Tsunade would understand that he had to show up a few hours later than everyone else. It also allowed him to talk to her in private - he hoped anyway.

As he turned the corner in the hospital he gave a nod to the two ANBU he had stationed outside of her door. Two trustworthy ninja he knew back from his day as captain; two people he had a reasonable amount of faith in so that he could assume they weren't part of some secret rebellion group.

Sometimes Kakashi wondered if he took his own lessons a bit too seriously now. Looking underneath the underneath; when did good intuition split from simple paranoia? Taking down Tsunade just after she had awoken from the coma would be a stain on Kakashi's authority, and a personal blow to him. This was, of course, if said underground group existed and said underground group thought like he did. The job of Hokage had either turned him into a cautious but well thought out strategist or an insane, paranoid man who was wasting a lot of people's time. He liked to think the former.

The two ANBU stepped aside as he gave them a hand signal and stepped into the room. Tsunade sat up in her hospital bed, papers scattered across the covers as she stared down the pile in her hands. Apparently she was reading, but with far more motivation than Kakashi had certainly ever read anything.

"Yo. I brought some flowers." Tsunade looked up, a scowl marring her face. Same old Tsunade, she had always looked at him like he was a bother. He found it funny.

"Put them over there on the table or something, Kakashi." Shizune quickly stood and grabbed them from him, making eye contact with him and raising an eyebrow. He shrugged. Did people really think that he was the type of person to not bring flowers when visiting a sick person? On second thought, they were probably right.

"I see Naruto did a pretty good job of getting you back up and running." Her fact softened a bit at the mention of his name as she laid the paper aside, putting it on top of the other papers on the bed.

"Yeah, the gaki did good. Almost killed me, but hey, nothing is gained without a little sacrifice right?" Kakashi chuckled a bit as he took a seat beside her bed.

"I'm surprised to see that the Hokage has time to come see a doddering old woman though." Kakashi gave an eye smile at the remark.

"My, my, I dare say you look young as ever Tsunade." She didn't. She either was choosing not to put her genjutsu back on or she couldn't, but it didn't matter. Her eyes still held the same fire as before, her aura still demanding the same respect as when she herself was Hokage, despite the fact that she now looked her age.

"What a charmer." She grumbled out the line, obviously unconvinced. "I also see you've stationed some ANBU outside my room. Afraid that I might walk out and demand my job back?" Kakashi sighed, and glanced over to Shizune who had seated herself again after arranging the flowers near the window. She caught the unspoken message in his eyes.

"I think I'll just go grab some food Tsunade-sama. I haven't really had a chance to eat since breakfast, but I'll be back soon." Tsunade nodded at the excuse, knowing the real reason behind her sudden absence. The room went silent for a bit as Kakashi composed himself.

"I'm sure you've been caught up on events since Pain attacked and you went into a coma." Tsunade nodded.

"As much as people could tell me. Naruto caught me up on some events outside of the village." Tsunade's eyes told him she had more to say on that matter, but she continued on for now. "I know Danzo is in hiding, doing who knows what, and that the two Uchiha's are building up the army that's going to cause us problems. The alliance is falling apart and most likely we're the first on the chopping block." Her voice went softer, a stark contrast from its earlier harshness in expressing their problems. "Nevertheless Kakashi, you've done a good job. You pulled the village back together and have rebuilt most of what we've lost. I may disagree with some of your decisions," Naruto's name was left unspoken. "but I understand why you did what you did. Now tell me why I've got two masks standing watch over me 24/7." He nodded a bit as she talked, impressed at her quick grasp of the situation.

"I'm just being cautious. There have been some rumors going around, that some people might be unhappy with the way things have been going." Tsunade nodded at the confirmation of her suspicions. "You would be a perfect target. They could raise doubts in my command, claim I did it to cement my power. Lots of options."

"I'm glad to hear you're thinking of me, Kakashi." A sarcastic remark; at least she had her humor about the situation.

"That as well of course. I could use some experience, and I can't imagine how it would affect Naruto if he lost you again." Her eyes turned downward at the comment, lost in thought.

"I know. He's been through a lot apparently, some of it at your command." Back and forth between kind words and critique.

"I didn't have much choice in the matter. He was the only one who could grab ahold of what Jiraiya left behind before it disappeared, and we couldn't wait. I would have rather not made him do it." Tsunade sighed, fatigue showing in her eyes.

"Sometimes I wish things could have stayed the same. It was a shock you know, expecting the younger Naruto and getting the adult one. He had to grow up sometime, but it's just … this is never how I wanted it to be for him." Kakashi leaned back in the chair. He felt the same.

"War changes everything Tsunade, you know that. We can't hide behind our wishes, as much as we want to." Kakashi knew that better than anyone. "We make sacrifices in the hope of changing the world for the better, but change never comes as fast as we like."

* * *

Naruto leaned back against a building across from Ichiraku ramen, covered by the shadows of the lamp that hung above from the corner of the roof. He was already five minutes past due to enter the place and meet up with everyone, but he wasn't ready. Not yet.

He had seen several of his friends go in, surprised by some more than others. His forced learning of chakra masking and simple stealth over the past year had become like a second skin, one that he was unable to leave behind easily. It was comforting, knowing that you could watch others without them seeing you, watch the world go by without you. And of course, none of those who knew him before would expect Naruto, the loud, attention grabbing boy that he used to be, to hide in the shadows when there was ramen to be had.

They also didn't know how much he cared about them. So many people had died because of him, because of who he was. It had only really hit him when Asuma had died, but it was driven home after Jiraiya's death. Neither of them would be gone if it wasn't for him. Kakashi, Shizune, and... and Hinata, they would all have been dead because of him if it weren't for Pain's abilities. Grappling with that realization had only left him with guilt.

The war in some ways was being fought because of him, because he wouldn't give himself up. He knew that was a lie, that if he gave himself up Madara would ruin everyone's life, but he still felt the guilt. It gnawed at him.

A year alone had made him realize he was more like Sasuke than he wanted to admit. He took strength from his bonds with others, but they were his weakness as well. Sasuke had chosen to throw them away for strength, but Naruto could never do that. His goal was bound up in making those people happy and safe, but there were always sacrifices along the way. When he stepped into Ichiraku, he would be making all those bonds real again, reigniting the will to protect all of them. If any more of them died he wasn't sure he would be able to handle the guilt.

Ino and Chouji had been the first to show up, which he guessed meant that Ino was taking her role as the organizer seriously. He had barely recognized her with the cropped blond hair, but her blue eyes and love for purple had given her away. She was avidly talking with Chouji over something, but they were too far away for Naruto to pick up the details of the conversation. Chouji was larger than he remembered, having grown over the year. His armor was battle-worn and chipped, but from what he could see the man seemed to be in good health.

Iruka had come alone, the same as ever, but the slump in his shoulders and lagging walk revealed his tiredness. He seemed to be dressed the same as years ago, which probably meant he was still teaching, but most likely now teaching children how to handle battlefields rather than history books. Naruto knew that couldn't be easy for him.

Neji and Tenten had come together, silent as they walked down the road. Naruto had taken extra precaution as the Hyuuga walked by, afraid he would be able to sense him, but he either wasn't on guard or didn't want to say anything if he had seen him. Dressed in the same long robes, the only change was a dark eyepatch that ran across the right side of his face. A costly loss for a Hyuuga, another sacrifice made for Konoha, for him. Tenten walked closely behind him, her eyes nervously scanning as she walked. She seemed... reserved, jittery even, dressed in layers: a long sleeve shirt over another, vest on top. Almost as if she didn't want to be seen, was hiding away under those clothes.

Sakura, Lee, and Sai all walked in, Sakura ignoring Lee as Sai trailed behind uninterested. Sakura obviously had something on her mind as she trudged along, her forehead scrunched up in a scowl. Lee must have picked up on the fact as well, as he seemed to be trying to distract her from whatever was bothering her. She had changed over the year, wearing what seemed to be thicker, leather clothing and longer shorts with small pieces of shielding across her thighs. He found himself in approval of the change; a medic should be more worried about their protection than their mobility. Lee apparently had continued to follow after his sensei, with the green suit and haircut, but Naruto wondered how much of that was a persona created out of necessity rather than choice. Sai was the same dark, silent figure Naruto remembered, but he had always been a product of war, growing up in the clutches of Root.

Kiba came with Hinata and Shino, seemingly angry about something. Akamaru walked by his side, a large chunk of his left ear torn out by someone or something over the year. Kiba himself seemed hidden within his fur lined coat, but the way he walked and the small growling noises Naruto could hear tipped him off as to his mood. Shino was Shino. Completely covered up with a hood over his head. A mystery Naruto would never know much about, but one he trusted nonetheless. He knew he was a good man, even if a bit anti-social at times. Perhaps something the two shared at heart right now.

Naruto's eyes lingered over Hinata far longer than he would have liked to admit to himself. She had come up in his thoughts at times over the year, as he tried to think through all the times he had met her, tried to figure her out. His thoughts did not do her justice. She was far more beautiful than he remembered, than he had pictured her. She followed after her cousin now, dressing in traditional Hyuuga robes with black trim down the sides, and they fit her well. He had spent time over his travels imagining what it would be like to be with her, imagining what it would be like to love her back, if she still even loved him. He unconsciously smiled as the idea passed again, but he knew that such fantasies would have to stay fantasies. He did not look forward to talking with her but he had to, and soon. He would hurt her, he knew that, but it would be far less painful for her than the alternative. All his happy fantasies ended the same way, Hinata emotionally destroyed, crying over his...

"Naruto, it's not nice to leave your friends waiting." Naruto jumped a little at the voice. He had let his mind wander too much and had lost track of his environment, a stupid mistake. He turned to find Shikamaru smirking at him from under the lamp.

"Think you can hide from a Nara in the shadows, eh?" Naruto smiled and shrugged, letting loose the chakra he had been holding back and stepping into the light.

"Well, I did think my stealth skills were pretty good you know." Shikamaru turned around, beckoning him to follow.

"They are, couldn't even tell you were there until I was right up on you. If I hadn't thought you might pull something like this I wouldn't have even checked, but luckily it seems I know you better than you think." Naruto raised his brow at the remark as he followed behind him. Was he that easy to figure out? Perhaps it was just Shikamaru.

"It was time for me to make an appearance anyway. Can't keep my audience waiting." Shikamaru laughed a bit as he pushed the curtain aside, stepping into the ramen stand. Throwing caution to the wind, Naruto followed after him.

The collective gasp and subsequent silence was a bit surprising. He took a step back and looked down at himself.

"Come on now, I'm not that different am I?"

* * *

Hinata's eyes were glued to him. She realized that they were and that she shouldn't be staring him down like that, but she just couldn't seem to stop herself. He was back, finally back.

So much was the same: the smile, the mass of almost too bright blonde hair, the blue of his eyes. For all that stayed the same though, Hinata's eyes found themselves drawn to the small changes. He was taller of course, missing orange now in his clothes and wearing the odd headband in the style of his mentor. Those changes weren't surprising, even if she could have never expected them. What shocked her was the tiny signs he was trying to hide, signs only the best of observers could pick up. He was good at veiling himself.

The creases at the corners of his eyes from stress, the slight tension in his back as if he was forcing himself to stand straight as he came in, the occasional nervous clenching of his left hand. Hinata had picked up all of these signs up within seconds of his coming through the door, and she was unsure what to make of them. Was he nervous at meeting them? That didn't seem like Naruto, but she never imagined he would be carrying marks of stress either. A sudden feeling of sympathy overwhelmed her.

"Bastard, how did you avoid me this entire time. No one hides their scent like that." Hinata caught Kiba rising out of his chair from the corner of her eye, pointing a mock accusing finger at Naruto. He just shrugged.

"I don't know. I bathe regularly? Does that help?" Hinata couldn't help but let out a giggle at the remark. It seems part of Naruto would never change and she found that fact comforting.

Hinata played the role of quiet observer as Naruto went from friend to friend, going through the motions of a smiling reunion, poking fun and acting like he had never been gone. The group had sorely missed him, with his personality and undeniable willpower acting as a sort of pillar for all of them. When the war started up it only made that fact more obvious.

He fell right in line with Sakura, taking a false punch to the head as she complained that he didn't come to see her when he came into the village. It was a nostalgic scene, filled with warm undertones despite the appearance of a conflict. She felt a prickle of jealousy at the sight, but squashed it immediately. There was no reason to feel such things.

He walked over to her table last, rolling into the seat across from her while ignoring Kiba's attempts to pull him into conversation beside her.

"Hinata, it's good to see you again. You're looking well." A shift in his tone of voice from before, or maybe she was imagining things. Either way she didn't know what it meant.

"You too Naruto-kun. You look quite a bit better than the last time I saw you before you left." Naruto smiled at the comment, while Kiba looked confusedly between the two of them.

"Well, I like to think I can handle my drink a bit better now." She smiled to herself, a bit surprised at how easy it was to talk to him. Far easier than she remembered it as a girl. Kiba spoke up beside her.

"You were drunk?" Naruto turned his head, making eye contact with Kiba for the first time since he had sat down. He nervously scratched the back of his head, elbow on the table.

"Yeah, well you see, it's a long story." Kiba smirked.

"Ohhh, I see. That must mean I have a new drinking buddy." Naruto raised an eyebrow. Kiba had taken after his mother in his love of going to bars after missions. In reality, it was kind of an Inuzuka tradition.

"I guess we'll have to see if you can keep up." Hinata did not want to imagine how that would turn out. Kiba had been looking for a way to prove himself to Naruto for a long time. Naruto brought his eyes back to Hinata.

"And you Hinata? Would you mind joining me for a drink after this?" Hinata heart hammered in her chest as she processed what he just said. Did he really just ask her that? In front of Kiba and Shino as well?

"S-Sure." She found herself regressing, barely able to get out the single word. Naruto just flashed her a smile and stood up, pushing off of the table with his hands.

"Alright then, after this." As he walked away to order some ramen, Kiba turned to her.

"Did he just...?" Shino shifted in his chair across from Kiba.

"Yes, he did just forget to say hello to me." Kiba scowled at Shino.

"Is that supposed to be a sarcastic remark Shino? You know I can never tell with you." Hinata laughed at her teammate, taking a much needed breath.

"Yes Kiba, I think he did." Changes could be good.

* * *

Sakura let out a breath into the cool night air as she walked out of the Ichiraku stand, shivering with delight at the contrast. She wasn't one to drink often but on a special occasion it felt good to have a few bottles. She just had to convince herself she wasn't turning into Tsunade.

It had been good to see Naruto, her frustration disappearing almost immediately after seeing him. He had grown up, and it had almost been like he had never left. They had fallen right back into their roles with one another, and while Sakura could pick up on signs that he had matured, he was still distinctly the Naruto she remembered.

He hadn't even mentioned her confession, and she was somewhat thankful for that. He was important to her, sure, but she found in him more support than anything else. He was a source of confidence and willpower for everyone, not only her, and she had come to realize that was far different than romantic feelings. She had been confused before, but mostly she had just wanted Naruto to change his mind about Sasuke at the time, so she would no longer feel guilty about making him promise to bring him back. Afterwards she had realized the promise was just as important to Naruto as it was to her. The sound of footsteps and she turned as Ino pushed aside the curtains, giving her a questioning glance.

"Headed back?" Sakura nodded to her.

"Are you sure it's ok to leave without Naruto? I know you haven't seen him in a while, and the last time you did see him you did kind of confess to him." Ino stepped out beside her, leaving the flap to fall back in place as she took her place.

"Yeah, it's fine Ino. He mentioned something about needing to talk to Hinata anyway." Ino eyes widened. She was always one for gossip. Her love for information probably had something to do with her choice of specialization.

"Oh really? You think he finally took some notice?" Sakura honestly wasn't sure. She didn't feel confident making judgements about what Naruto would do anymore. Sure, much of him was the young boy of a teammate she remembered, but there was something else too.

Over the course of the night she had caught bits and pieces of a new Naruto, changes in him. They were to be expected; all of them had changed, they had to. He spaced out a few times and while it wasn't like he hadn't done that as a boy, whenever he had before he always was able to at least keep a smile on his face. Tonight there was nothing, no emotion on his face but something in his eyes. She wasn't sure, such things weren't her speciality, but he looked tired, maybe even regretful. She would have to talk to him later.

"I don't know Ino. When he mentioned it, he didn't exactly seem happy about it." Ino brow scrunched up in confusion.

"What do you mean?" Sakura let out a sigh as she kept walking.

"I'm not sure, he just sounded... I guess defeated is the best word. Resigned." Ino stopped walking and Sakura turned to her, wondering why.

"Any other weird slips, Sakura? Sudden switches from normal?" Sakura frowned a bit, wondering where this was going.

"I guess Ino. I mean, sure he seemed different a few times, but we've all changed. Naruto's just grown up a bit, that's all." Ino's face fell a bit at Sakura's comment.

"I don't know Sakura, I got a weird vibe from him. I just wrote it off as a lack in my skills, and the fact that I hadn't seen him for a while." Now Sakura was confused.

"Ino?" The blonde bit her lower lip, obviously deciding on what to say. After a few seconds she raised her head, looking Sakura in the eyes.

"It's just.. I couldn't read his face Sakura. Everything that was there, everything I normally pick up on to read a person, I could tell he put there, intentionally placed it there, all to put out the signs that he wanted people to see and respond to. I had no idea what he was thinking and honestly there are only a few people who can do that to me." Sakura's frown deepened at the worried tone in her friend's voice.

"Kakashi for one, that man doesn't have a face you can see. Anko's close, but she's fallen into her persona so much that she's become what she constructed, so you can tell she means what she's acting, even if it's a bit crazy. You only really run into those faces on people who've lost it Sakura, who've been in the interrogation room so long that they've taught themselves to fake the signs the interrogator wants to see, and I don't want to imagine how Naruto learned to do that."

* * *

Naruto drained a dish of sake down, catching a wink from Kiba to Hinata as he walked out of the stand, leaving the two of them alone. Kami, he was going to need the alcohol to pull this off.

He turned to Hinata, forcing a smile across his face as she blushed a bit. He almost lost his will then, overwhelmed by how beautiful she looked. He did not want to do this and she was only making it harder.

"How about we go somewhere a bit quieter?" He stood, offering his good hand to help her up. She nodded as she took it, standing up and following him out of the stand. The cool air was always sobering, and right now Naruto hated it for that. He let go of her hand, turning his head around to face her.

"Think you can keep up?" A challenging smirk to top it off. Hinata smiled back at him, nodding again.

He turned, pumping chakra into his leg to take off, setting a moderate pace as he leapt from rooftop to rooftop. It felt good to run and even better to put off talking to Hinata for a bit. Plus he was always one for a little friendly competition.

A glance out of the corner of his eye told him Hinata was easily keeping up, her eyes downcast as she was obviously wrapped up in thought. He would have to fix that.

"Now, Now Hinata. You have to pay attention or you might lose me." Immediately he sped up, taking a chip out of a roofing tile as he pushed more chakra down his leg. Hinata let out a small squeak at the sudden crack, realizing that he was right. She followed suit, chasing after the lingering image of blond hair that stained that darkness in front of her.

She caught up quickly, her tighter chakra control allowing her to keep speed with Naruto who was throwing his weight in chakra around with each landing. He turned back, giving her a smile as she came into view.

"Ohhh, not enough huh?" She could only giggle at the mock surprise that filled his face.

"Of course not, Naruto-kun. You think I did nothing while you were gone?" Real surprise replaced the caricature. More than just her speed had changed.

"I better not underestimate you then." Naruto found himself laughing along with her, losing a bit of the tension he felt as his mind was taken up by other thoughts. Suddenly taking the competition very seriously, he sped up as much as he could, taking off towards the Hokage monument. Part of him was proud of the fact that she kept up with him.

Naruto ended up bent over, breathing quite hard as he reached the top of the monument, Hinata landing behind him shortly after, her face now flushed from the run rather than nervousness. He flashed a smile at her, falling into a sitting position with his hands behind him propping him up.

"Good run, huh?" She fell in line sitting beside him, her eyes looking over the village.

"Quite." He unconsciously found himself studying her profile as her breaths slowed down to normal. She most definitely had changed, almost to the point to where he felt he no longer knew the young girl from before he left with Jiraiya.

"Naruto-kun?" Her eyes meeting his shocked him back into reality, his tongue stumbling over his words as he reached down for the gourd attached to his belt.

"Uh, Drink... I mean, I invited you out for a drink right?" He held up the bottle, a bit embarrassed at his sad attempt to save himself. She didn't notice, suddenly too nervous again to be worried about anyone other than herself.

"Yes, sure, I mean..." Naruto laughed, uncorking the gourd and handing it to her.

"Sorry I don't have glasses. I'm not too big on the whole formality thing." She quickly took a swig of the burning drink, trying to hide the blush that had just flared up at the idea of sharing the gourd with him. She coughed a bit after taking a drink, which Naruto had come to expect after offering someone some of the Toad brew.

"Sorry, I should have warned you. It's a bit strong." Hinata took that as a silent challenge to take another drink, this time expecting the burning. Again, Naruto found himself impressed with her. As the two settled down, Hinata turned to him.

"Is this where you and Gamakichi drank that night?" She had good intuitions.

"Yeah, it is. I've always loved it up here, and after the attack I needed a place to think." He kept silent for a minute, taking in the view. "It really is beautiful you know, Konoha. Even if it's different than what I remember as a kid, this will always be my favorite spot in the village, where I can look over it all." Hinata turned to him again, forgetting her worries at the change in his tone. He looked at her, gesturing for the bottle she held.

"I've never been up here myself." She watched him take a long drink from the gourd. "I don't think father would be too happy at the idea." Naruto chuckled.

"I guess he wouldn't, would he?" Naruto did not want to imagine Hiashi's reaction to any of this, the location being the least of his worries.

His mind returned back to the task at hand, what he had been fretting over ever since he had seen Hinata again. Silence fell over the pair as Naruto gazed out, his face shifting into an expression Hinata wasn't familiar with on him. Fear.

"Hinata... you know, I've thought a lot over the past year." Her body went rock solid as she listened. He went quiet again, shifting nervously as he sat up, his stare fixed on the village.

"I guess... I guess you know about the fur ball right?" It took Hinata a minute to register what he was asking. The Kyuubi. Sympathy for him washed over her.

"We all know now, Naruto. Part of the briefing on Akatsuki." She scrambled, trying to think of what to say to him. To comfort him, help him.

"You're a hero, you know?" Naruto turned away from the village, meeting her eyes.

"You told me that before." She remembered.

"I meant it then just as much as I do now. Perhaps even more now." His face relaxed a bit.

"You're a good person, Hinata." She blushed a bit at the compliment. "That's why.." She froze again, watching him as he tried to arrange his words. Why what?

He took a deep breath, readjusting himself. Hinata felt her stomach fall at the pained look he gave.

"Hinata, you could say that I'm surprisingly mortal for someone in my condition." Her brow scrunched in confusion.

"Naruto-kun, what do you mean?" She wasn't sure she wanted to know where this was going.

"You probably don't know this, but my father was the Fourth Hokage. Not so surprising, I guess, when you look at things. He died sealing the Kyuubi into me, died for this village." Naruto paused for a minute. "It seems that he was an orphan too, his father dying in first war. He grew up alone like me, became a ninja like me, gave his life like..." He stopped, caught up in his own thoughts. She caught him whispering under his breath. "It seems that all Namikaze men are fated to die young."

Panic overwhelmed her as she realized what he suggesting. Her heart pounded in her chest, her throat trapped shut by the fear of what answers he might give to the questions that bubbled up inside of her. She calmed herself, holding a hand to her chest as she breathed in. Naruto was too important to her, too important to let fear stop her from knowing.

"Naruto-kun, what do you mean by that?" He turned to her smiling grimly.

He couldn't tell her everything, couldn't make her worry like that. She was too good. She deserved to be happy, and he knew he could never give her that. Not anymore. So he steeled himself as he did what he had to.

"Hinata, I'm sorry. I took a year and I still don't know how I feel about you." The abrupt change in topic only made the point more apparent. Her thoughts reeled. He didn't know how he felt, but the didn't mean he wasn't willing to learn, right? Right?

He moved on quickly, leaving her no time to respond.

"And, I can't be with you. Can't be with anyone." There it was, what she had been dreading to hear. She felt dizzy, sick almost as she tried to come to terms with his words.

"W-Why?" She couldn't help but let the stutter into her voice, focusing too much on not letting tears form. She couldn't look at him beside her as he answered.

"I can't burden anyone like that, especially not you." She couldn't make sense of his words. "I'm sorry, Hinata, but it's for the best, for both of us." She shook her head, blinking away the tears that had come to the corner of her eyes. That could never be for the best. The words just flowed out of her.

"No." Naruto sat up rigidly at her small voice. "No, Naruto." Hinata seemed to be gaining momentum as her voice increased in strength. She looked over, staring at him with those wet lavender eyes. His heart rose up into his throat at the sight.

"I don't care what you say. I would take on any burden for you. I thought you would have gotten that when I stepped in front of Pain for you." His eyes widened as she spoke, her voice growing louder until it tapered off, ending in a whisper.

"Hinata..." He didn't know what to say, how to respond. Even if it was what she wanted, it was too much to ask of her. Too much to ask of anyone.

"I'll always be here, Naruto-kun." She smiled up at him, her cheeks wet with the tears she could no longer hold back.

His mind could no longer work, shut down by guilt and shock. He stood, his face blank, and slowly backed away from her. This was not how it was supposed to turn out. She was supposed to accept what he said and move on, maybe even hate him if that's what it took. An internal conflict waged between his concern for her and desire to just know, know what it would be like to be accepted and loved by her...

Hinata could only think of a trapped animal.

"I just... I can't... No." Naruto turned, unable to deal with the situation in front him. Instinct took over and he found himself running down the hill back to the village. Hinata could only sit as she watched his back disappear over the side. She let all her feelings out, sitting alone on top the monument.

Pulling her knees to her chest, she wept for the man she loved who she could never seem to help.


End file.
